Born on this day – Cicely Tyson:

Cicely Tyson

Actress

December 19, 1924 – January 28, 2021

Born on this day – Maria Riva:

Maria Riva

Actress

Writer

Producer

December 13, 1924 – October 29, 2025

Credits:

Books:

Marlene Dietrich (1992); Marlene Dietrich Lib/E: The Life (2020); Marlene Dietrich: By Her Daughter Maria Riva (1992); Marlene Dietrich: The Life (1993); Meine Mutter Marlene (1992); You Were There Before My Eyes (2017).

Movies and television:

4th Annual Celebrity Parade for Cerebral Palsy (1954); 5th Annual Celebrity Parade for Cerebral Palsy (1955); Ad Lib (1986–1995); All Aboard (2018); Appointment with Adventure (1955); Armstrong Circle Theatre (1952); Beckmann (2005); Biography (2000); Climax! (1955); Compression (2023); Crime Photographer (1951–1952); Crime Syndicate (1952); Danger (1951–1952); Die glückliche Mutter (1928); Hallmark Hall of Fame (1952); Hello Paradise (2007); Hour of Stars (2002); Josef von Sternberg, the Man Who Made Dietrich (1994); Kraft Theatre (1952); Kraft Theatre / The Philco Television Playhouse (1952–1953); Kultur im Gespräch (1993); Legenden (1998); Let's Take Sides (1953); Lux Video Theatre (1951–1952); Marlene - Le Crépuscule d'un ange (2012); Marlene (2025); Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song (2001); Marlene Dietrich: Shadow and Light (1996); Medallion Theatre (1953); Nachlass Marlene Dietrich (1993); Omnibus / segment: The Abracadabra Kid (1953); Robert Montgomery Presents (1952–1955); Scrooged (1988); Stage 7 (1955); Studio One (1951–1955); Sure As Fate (1951); Suspense (1951–1954); Target (1958); The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1956); The Ed Sullivan Show (1953); The Garden of Allah (1936); The Interviews: An Oral History of Television (2009); The Ken Murray Show (1952); The King Steps Out (1936); The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story (1996); The Martha Raye Show (1955); The Milton Berle Show (1953); The Motorola Television Hour (1953); The Revlon Mirror Theater (1953); The Scarlet Empress (1934); The Story of Ruth (1954); The Web (1951–1954); Why Be Good? Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema (2007); WOR-TV's Kid Telethon (1954); You Are There (1954); Your Show of Shows (1952).

Born on this day – Jack Couffer:

Jack Couffer

Cinematographer

Director

Writer

December 7, 1924 – July 30, 2021

Born on this day – Susanna Foster:

Susanna Foster

Actress

December 6, 1924 – January 17, 2009

Credits:

Bowery to Broadway (1944); Detour (1992); Follow the Boys (1944); Frisco Sal (1945); Glamour Boy (1941); Phantom of the Opera (1943); Star Spangled Rhythm (1942); That Night with You (1945); The Best of Hollywood (1999); The Climax (1944); The Great Victor Herbert (1939); The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked (2000); There's Magic in Music (1941); This Is the Life (1944); Top Man (1943); Universal Newsreel (1945).

Born on this day – Paula Raymond:

Paula Raymond

Actress

November 23, 1924 – December 31, 2003

Born on this day – Geraldine Page:

Geraldine Page

Actress

November 22, 1924 – June 13, 1987

Born on this day – Gianni Ferrio:

Gianni Ferrio

Composer

Conductor

Music arranger

November 16, 1924 – October 21, 2013

Born on this day – Henry Langrehr:

Henry Langrehr

World War II Veteran

Writer

November 4, 1924 – April 23, 2025

Book:

Whatever It Took

An American Paratrooper's Extraordinary Memoir of Escape, Survival, and Heroism in the Last Days of World War II

by Henry Langrehr & Jim DeFelice.

Published by William Morrow.

Illustrated edition.

Published 2020.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0063027429

ISBN-13: 978-0063027428

Description:

"Extraordinary. ... Reveal[s] [Langrehr] as a person of great courage and strength who did whatever it took to survive." – Quad-City Times.

“Simply fascinating...reads with all the emotional impact of a finely crafted novel...an extraordinary and impressively presented military biography.” – Midwest Book Review.

Published to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, an unforgettable never-before-told first-person account of World War II: the true story of an American paratrooper who survived D-Day, was captured and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp, and made a daring escape to freedom.

Now at 95, one of the few living members of the Greatest Generation shares his experiences at last in one of the most remarkable World War II stories ever told. As the Allied Invasion of Normandy launched in the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944, Henry Langrehr, an American paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne, was among the thousands of Allies who parachuted into occupied France. Surviving heavy anti-aircraft fire, he crashed through the glass roof of a greenhouse in Sainte-Mère-Église. While many of the soldiers in his unit died, Henry and other surviving troops valiantly battled enemy tanks to a standstill. Then, on June 29th, Henry was captured by the Nazis. The next phase of his incredible journey was beginning.

Kept for a week in the outer ring of a death camp, Henry witnessed the Nazis’ unspeakable brutality – the so-called Final Solution, with people marched to their deaths, their bodies discarded like cords of wood. Transported to a work camp, he endured horrors of his own when he was forced to live in unbelievable squalor and labor in a coal mine with other POWs. Knowing they would be worked to death, he and a friend made a desperate escape. When a German soldier cornered them in a barn, the friend was fatally shot; Henry struggled with the soldier, killing him and taking his gun. Perilously traveling westward toward Allied controlled land on foot, Henry faced the great ethical and moral dilemmas of war firsthand, needing to do whatever it took to survive. Finally, after two weeks behind enemy lines, he found an American unit and was rescued.

Awaiting him at home was Arlene, who, like millions of other American women, went to work in factories and offices to build the armaments Henry and the Allies needed for victory. Whatever It Took is her story, too, bringing to life the hopes and fears of those on the homefront awaiting their loved ones to return.

A tale of heroism, hope, and survival featuring 30 photographs, Whatever It Took is a timely reminder of the human cost of freedom and a tribute to unbreakable human courage and spirit in the darkest of times.

Born on this day – Cleo Moore:

Cleo Moore

Actress

October 31, 1924 – October 25, 1973

Born on this day – Joyce Randolph:

Joyce Randolph

Actress

October 21, 1924 – January 13, 2024

Credits:

Everything's Jake (2000); Hi Honey, I'm Home (1991); Honeybloopers (1989); The Doctors and the Nurses (1964); The Jackie Gleason Show (1952–1957); The Honeymooners (1955–1956); Modern Romances (1955); The Mail Story (1954); The Jack Benny Program (1954); The Plainclothesman (1953–1954); Short Short Dramas (1953); The Ed Sullivan Show (1952); I Cover Times Square (1950); The Clock (1950); Famous Jury Trials (1950); Buck Rogers (1950); Rocky King, Detective (1950); Gander Sauce (1944).

Born on this day – Robert Webber:

Robert Webber

Actor

October 14, 1924 – May 19, 1989

Born on this day – Doris Grau:

Doris Grau

Actress

Script supervisor

October 12, 1924 – December 30, 1995

Credits:

A Rage to Live (1965); A Touch of Scandal (1984); All Is Forgiven (1986); Angel Dusted (1981); Another Man, Another Chance (1977); Babe (1995); Bare Essence (1983); Blue (1968); Brilliant But Cancelled (2002); Caveman (1981); CBS Summer Playhouse (1989); Cheers (1983–1987); Clay Pigeon (1971); Clue (1985); Coldblooded (1995); Coward of the County (1981); Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1969); Frasier (1995); Goldie and the Boxer (1979); Good Advice (1993); Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980); Heroes (1977); How Do I Love Thee? (1970); Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues (1983); King Kong (1976); Making It (1971); Marie (1985); Miracles (1986); Missing Children: A Mother's Story (1982); Monty (1994); My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985); No Way Out (1987); Phenom (1994); Pieces of Dreams (1970); Point Blank (1967); Quarterback Princess (1983); Rhinoceros (1974); Ruthless People (1986); Seinfeld (1989); Sibs (1991); Sleeper (1973); Snowball Express (1972); Tarawa Beachhead (1958); The Blue and the Gray (1982); The Champ (1979); The Critic (1994–1995); The Distinguished Gentleman (1992); The Forgotten Man (1971); The Frisco Kid (1979); The George Carlin Show (1994); The Hunter (1980); The Klansman (1974); The Last Day (1975); The Million Dollar Duck (1971); The North Avenue Irregulars (1979); The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper (1981); The Ransom (1977); The Shadow Riders (1982); The Simpsons (1991–1997); The Stranger Who Looks Like Me (1974); The Tracey Ullman Show (1987–1990); The White Shadow (1978); They Came to Cordura (1959); You Take the Kids (1991).

Born on this day – Ed Wood:

Ed Wood

Director

Actor

Writer

October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978

Born on this day – Barbara Kelly:

Barbara Kelly

Actress

Writer

Producer

October 5, 1924 – January 15, 2007

Credits:

A Tale of Five Women (1951); Alan Melville Takes You from A-Z (1959); Alice Through the Looking Box (1960); Alien Attack (1976); An Evening at Home with Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly (1951); Armchair Theatre (1957); B and B (1968); Barbara with Braden (1953); BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1951); Blankety Blank (1979–1980); Call My Bluff (1969–1970); Carissima (1950); Castle in the Air (1952); Celebrity Squares (1976); Comedy Playhouse (1968); Criss Cross Quiz (1957–1967); Cynthia Payne's House of Cyn (1995); Dateline Britain (1959); Dee Time (1969); Give Us a Clue (1980); Glad Tidings! (1953); H.M. Tennent Globe Theatre (1956); Hawaii Five-O (1978–1980); ITV Play of the Week (1956–1959); ITV Television Playhouse (1955–1956); Jet Storm (1959); Jubilee Dinner of the Concert Artistes' Association (1957); Kaleidoscope (1950); Kelly's Eye (1957); Let Him Have It (1991); Love in Pawn (1953); Lust of a Eunuch (1977); Magnum, P.I. (1981); New Faces (1974); Night of One Hundred Stars (1980); No Hiding Place (1962); Not a Word (1970); Parkinson (1975 / 1978); Password (1973–1974); Pat Boone in Hollywood (1967); Pearl (1978); Punchlines (1983); Read All About It (1977); Russell Harty Plus (1972); Shadow of the Tree (1951); Space: 1999 (1975–1976); Sunday Story (1961–1967); Television: The Magic Rectangle - An Anatomy of the TV Personality (1986); The Biz Quiz (1966); The Desert Hawk (1950); The Eamonn Andrews Show (1965–1967); The Flying Fontaines (1959); The Joey Bishop Show (1968); The Long Christmas Dinner (1949); The Male Animal (1956); The Paul Daniels Magic Show (1982); The Pyramid Game (1982); The Rolling Stones (1960); The Sweepstakes Game (1976); The Texan (1960); This Is Your Life (1973–1991); Those Wonderful TV Times (1977); Treasure on Pelican (1951); Tribute to Trevor Howard (1986); Variety Club of Great Britain Awards for 1956 (1957); We Beg to Differ (1951); What's My Line? (1951–1984); Where in the World? (1973); Wogan (1986–1987).

Born on this day – Marina Berti:

Marina Berti

Actress

September 29, 1924 – October 29, 2002

Born on this day – Gail Russell:

Gail Russell

Actress

September 21, 1924 – August 26, 1961

Born on this day – Collin Wilcox:

Collin Wilcox

Writer

September 21, 1924 – July 12, 1996

Credits:

Books:

A Death Before Dying (1990); Aftershock (1975); Bernhardt's Edge (1988); Calculated Risk (1995); Dark House, Dark Road (1982); Dead Aim (1971); Dead Center (1992); Doctor, Lawyer.... (1976); Except for the Bones (1991); Find Her a Grave (1993); Full Circle (1994); Hiding Place (1973); Hire a Hangman (1991); Long Way Down (1975); Mankiller (1980); McCloud (1973); Night Games (1986); Power Plays (1979); Silent Witness (1990); Spellbinder (1981); Stalking Horse (1982); Swallow's Fall (1987); Switchback (1993); The Black Door (1967); The Disappearance (1970); The Faceless Man (1975); The Lonely Hunter (1969); The New Mexico Connection (1974); The Pariah (1988); The Third Figure (1967); The Third Victim (1977); The Watcher (1978); Twospot (1978); Victims (1985).

Born on this day – Lauren Bacall:

Lauren Bacall

Actress

September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014

Born on this day – Scott Brady:

Scott Brady

Actor

September 13, 1924 – April 16, 1985

Born on this day – Sylvia Miles:

Sylvia Miles

Actress

September 9, 1924 – June 12, 2019